Fiume o morte! to Represent Croatia at the 98th Academy Awards

We are proud to share that Fiume o morte!, directed by Igor Bezinović, has been selected as Croatia’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.

This marks a historic milestone for Croatian cinema – Fiume o morte! is the first documentary ever chosen to represent Croatia in the Oscars race. The announcement was made by the Croatian Society of Film Workers on 4 September 2025.

The film has also been selected as Croatia’s submission for Spain’s prestigious Goya Awards in the Best European Film category, continuing its remarkable international journey.

Fiume o morte! has broken box office records, becoming the most-watched Croatian documentary since the country’s independence, with more than 35,000 admissions. In Rijeka’s Art-kino, it stands as the most-watched title in the cinema’s history.

The film triumphed at International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it received both the festival’s top prize and the FIPRESCI critics’ award. Since then, it has toured over 35 international festivals — from MoMA in New York to screenings in Mexico, Taiwan, and Australia — collecting a wide array of accolades, including Best Documentary awards in Innsbruck, Podgorica, and Yerevan, six Golden Arenas at the Pula Film Festival, and the Vedran Šamanović Award.

Adding to its success, ICA Cinema has recently acquired the UK and Ireland theatrical rights, ensuring audiences across both countries will soon have the chance to experience the film on the big screen.

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Igor Bezinović (A Brief Excursion), Fiume o morte! revisits the 1919 occupation of Rijeka by Italian poet and provocateur Gabriele D’Annunzio. Combining inventive storytelling with local community participation, Bezinović invites Rijeka’s residents to reconstruct and reinterpret this extraordinary episode of European history.